I'm here!

Welp, I realized the other day that it has been 5 months since I’ve blogged. Yep, five; so I decided to give a small update. I think the reason why I don’t bog that much is because I’m kinda boring! I read people’s blog’s almost daily but I never feel as if anything I do is of any importance or even exciting. Work, eat, sleep, hang out with my sweet hubby and play with the pups is just an everyday somewhat boring routine that never gets old and I wouldn’t change it for anything in this world. I gave up counting points several months ago with Weight Watchers. I had lost a total of about 20lbs.. and I’ve gained 10 of it back. Feeling like a complete fat failure. I hate that I feel so awful, so unhealthy and yet still lack that determination, the drive, the deep down inside want to- to get rid of the rest of this weight. It weighs me down, literally and emotionally. I hate it, I hate that it has to be a journey, that I just can’t wake up and it be gone and I can be happy. Nope, it takes hard work-  which is something that I lack a lot of! I am the type who just wants to get by with as little work as possible. That’s probably the reason why I never liked school! Anyway, maybe my rant is over now..

I thought some of you would like to be in prayer for some friends who are in the process of adoption! You may not know this about me, but I have a huge heart for adoption. And I LOVE to hear and pray and know of people who are in the process of it. I believe it was my aunt and uncle to really have began the stirring in my heart for adoption. They have 2 sweet and precious girls that they adopted from China. They are such a blessing to our family!

My friends, Josh and Katie Brady have been going through this journey for a while now. Josh was who married me and my honey and his sweet wifey was also in our wedding. We don’t see each other nearly enough (well hardly ever at all-which makes me sad but we just get busy!) Anyway, they are adopting from Ethiopia! They could use your prayers and your support if you would like to lift them up! They sale t-shirts and beads (I think). But anyway, you can follow their journey at www.thebraddybunch.blogspot.org

Also, a high school friend just began their journey very recently (like they haven’t turned in their application yet!) for a domestic adoption. They would love for you to pray with them and support them in anyway possible! They have t-shirts for sale and if you have any creative ways for them to raise more money, I am sure they would love to hear suggestions! Their blog is alltoholdmybaby.blogspot.com

Our pastor and his wife began their journey with adoption last February through the Marshall Islands and were able to bring their baby home this past November! A sweet baby boy home right before Christmas!

I know that one day we will be called to move forward and begin an adoption process and I can’t wait until that day but hopefully until then our friends will have their little ones with them, learning what it’s like to be in a family, to be wanted and to be loved- not just by their parents but by the Lord also. Pray for these children, the adoptive parents and also for the birth parents.
Hope you guys have a great week! 

Domesticated and Vacationed

 Hey guys! Sorry for the delay! Last time I updated I was going strong on weight watchers.. Well, not so much any more! I have lost all motivation, ugh!! I just can’t seem to get going again and count my points. I have stayed at a constant 18-19lbs lost though. That counts as something, right?? Anyway, I used to watch this show called Heavy where there were extremely obese people who would go to a health care facility for a 6 month period and drastically change their lifestyles. It was so encouraging to watch these people, who had a lot more to stop them than I do, to make such changes. Buuut, I’ll just use the excuse that the season ended and I haven’t been watching it. Pathetic, huh? I still wish I can get jump started again and continue on with my goal of 50lbs lost by DECEMBER.. Which is THREE months away! Anyway, enough about that, I have other fun things to talk about..

First off, I have become “domesticated” in a way. Some of you may remember that I took sewing lessons and then a few months later bought this: 

 Well I made my first project for a sweet friend of mine. She’s having a baby boy in November and so I decided I was going to make her a blankey for her and Caleb. I used the zig-zag stitch for the very first time on this, you can’t see that detail but you can see how it came out..

 I decided that I really kinda enjoyed making stuff so I quickly came up with another project! Since Joseph has lived in the house we have never had curtains for our bedroom. I looked everywhere for them. I even bought some from Overstock.com.. Didn’t like them, so I turned to looking for fabric. Hancock fabric was having a sale on curtains and drapes one weekend,  JACKPOT! I bought 4 yards of fabric for about $40! That’s HALF off! So I quickly went to work on them and finally finished them and hung them today.. This is the end result:

So to continue my whole new “being domesticated” hobby, I finally made something from scratch! Thanks to Pinterest ( go there RIGHT NOW and sign up! It’s so addictive and soo much better than FB!) Anyway, thanks to Pinterest I found this website to make Snickerdoodle Muffins.. Yumm-O! So I got my stuff and starting dirtying up the kitchen and came out with a pretty good end result!! You should really try it.. I didn’t use Cream of Tartar though, it didn’t call for a lot and it was $6 at Kroger! Yikes! Anybody want some……?

That’s not all that I’ve been doing either. I had my week of vacation in August and the Honey and I loaded up(way too much stuff) and headed down to Destin. We shared a condo with my parents and enjoyed every minute of being there.. We even kayaked in the ocean. It was a lot of fun! We ate at some great places and even went to play putt-putt. We certainly didn’t want to leave AT ALL!  Oh and Joseph’s birthday was on August 26^th. He got a watch from the Fossil outlet and a skinny tie. We went out to eat at Cerami’s the day of his birthday and then had friends over the night after for cake and ice cream. I think he enjoyed welcoming in his 30^th year!

Putt-Putt!

Hot and sweaty but nice waterfall!

Happy Birthday Honey!

So it’s not update without the dogs is it? Zeke had been B.A.D.  Twice this week he has gotten food off of the counter that was cooling. Talk about ticked! I don’t know what’s gotten into him.. But in the end I can’t help but laugh. It just wasn’t really funny the other night when the cake was suppose to be going with us since we were the ones who were bringing desert for dinner with friends.. Piper has still been just as sweet as usual, except she has been doing this whole barking thing. At night and during the morning, I think she’s barking at squirrels in the morning and her shadow at night.. Yesssh.. Here they are being sweet and kinda bad..

Welp, it's been a while. But who all is surprised? I have still been trucking along in my weight watchers journey. So far I have lost a grand total of 14.2 lbs. and 5inches in my waist. My weigh-ins are on Mondays so I did that this morning. I wanted Mondays to be my "blogging days" since that was my weigh in day but our community group changed to Monday nights and I really don't have any other excuse except that I'm too tired by the end of that to do any thinking. Anyway. Last week Joseph was out of town from Monday-Thursday. It was awful. I have gotten to the point that I really don't know what I did before him. Was life even meaningful before him? Whatever I did it wasn't nearly as good as it is when we're together. I can't imagine life without him. He is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. Oh, did I mention that it's our 10th month-aversary? Good grief! Has it almost been a year already??? I don't even understand how fast time goes by. Anyway, back to him being out of town and weight watchers. I don't know how I lost weight this week.. Since he's the cook in the family, I was going to starve, so what did I do? I ate out. All week. Yikes! I had Wendy's TWICE, I mean really?? Besides eating Chickfila the Friday before I couldn't even remember the last time I ate fast food. Then I had mexican with my sweet friend Kara on Tuesday night which lead me to go ahead and get a plate to go for lunch the next day.. Typically I would have eaten only half of my plate and take the other half home-but I was starving this particular day and I took out the whole plate. One night I did feel bad for eating so much that all I had was cereal. But then when he came home, he was too tired to cook (I'm SUCH a bad wife not cooking for my husband) so we went to a little Italian place for dinner.. and of course had leftovers the next day. So I had all of that last week and I still lost 1.2lbs this week. Whew! That was a lot!! I feel sick just thinking back on it :/ But only 11lbs more and I'm halfway to my goal. I have set it to lose all 50lbs by Christmas.. Really hoping I can keep this goal. I am not much of a goal keeper or one to stick things like this out. But hopefully I can hold on to motivation and determination until then!

The little train that could.. "I think I can I think I can I think I can." <--that's me!

Have a fantastic week!

Update

Well I didn't blog last week, mostly because I was mad since I had gained a pound. I'll blame it on Memorial Day and my birthday weekend. I had my weigh in today and I lost 4lbs this week! That's a total of 7.2lbs! Hootie Hoo! I am excited. I can't really "tell" that I'm getting smaller in my clothes but I can kinda see my tummy get a LITTLE smaller. Enough to keep me motivated, I was really bummed last week but I guess I did pretty good last week.

Nothing else has really been going lately, we did visit my dad's Memorial day weekend, was able to hang out in the pool and get a little crispy and just relax. This weekend we're going to a friend's wedding on the coast and we're going to stay the night Saturday and go to Ship Island on Sunday. Neither one of us have ever been so we're excited to go to a beach.. Gonna be our only beach trip this year. Hopefully I can get some pics up for when we come back. Hope everyone has a good week!

Peeeace ouutt

Week One

Well, I completed my first full week on Weight Watchers! I lost 4lbs! I was hoping to lose a little more water weight than that but it's better than nothing! I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last post but I did WW a few years ago and the first week in I lost TEN lbs so I was hoping for something more like that, but I'm not discouraged. I think I want to set my goal to lose the 50lbs in 5 months.. 10lbs a month, I'm wondering if that's wishful thinking/too much. But I guess it needs to be slow and steady. Anyway, about my week. I was hungry almost the whole week. But instead of unhealthy snacks I ate about 4 apples and 2 whole (fresh) pineapples-which is my favorite fruit. Joseph helped mewith some of the pineapple though. We even ate out twice, once we had hibachi and once mexican. It's so nice to eat only part of the meal and make myself stop eating. I have to get used to the new "full". I stop eating a little less than half of it. I get hungrier more often, but like I said, I eat healthier snacks. Hopefully I can keep it up!

In other news, today is my sweet little Zeker-man's 2nd Bday! Here's a pic of the happy boy..

Have a great week!

Weight Loss Journey

So, I have decided to really try hard to blog about this. Tomorrow I will begin my journey of losing 50-60lbs. It has been recommended by my doctor and plus I am just plain miserable. I am so pumped about this and motivation is high but I am so afraid of getting burned out quickly. Joseph and I plan on waiting until about our 2 year anniversary to start trying to have babies and my doctor told me that the closer I am to my ideal weight the easier it will be to become pregnant. So I figured I needed some time to get adjusted to a new lifestyle, a new plan, a new me. I want to feel confident again. I want to not worry about what I look like and I really want to be HEALTHY. But the thing is is that I am a PICKY eater. I don't eat salads, there are a lot of veggies I don't eat, I don't eat bananas.... and the list goes on.. I know you're thinking how weird I am.. I know already. And I hate it. I don't know why I don't like things but I am seriously going to start trying to acquire different tastes, hopefully. It would make the lifestyle change easier by eating more "free points" than what I can-due to my extreme pickiness. So with that being said, here we go. I will hopefully begin updating on Monday nights, since I will start tomorrow. But giving my track record on blogging.. Well we don't have to discuss that, ha. I hope everyone has a great week.. I'll be back next week.. Hopefully!

Ranting

I am just going to go ahead and warn you, this is going to be a rant.

I have terrible neighbors. Well, I say terrible, sometimes they aren't so bad. But most of the time they drive me insane. I'll start with the kid. (I'll preface this by saying I am currently watching SuperNanny and he is nothing like this crazy kid on here). Anyway, about 97% I see him he's outside by himself, I always notice that their door is open but they aren't watching him. Typically he is on his little powerwheels, in our yard or sometimes in the street. It just really gets under my skin when he is in our yard. His parent's aren't watching him and they don't care that he is on someone else's property and if they do see him in the street they yell "get out of the street!" We did, for several weeks, have an issue of them parking in front of our house. I know these things sound petty but they are super annoying. They had one person who constantly parked in front of our house (when there wasn't anyone parked in front of their house) and he would walked through our yard to get to theirs. Really? Where is your respect for others and their property? Last night I was awake from about 1:30-3:30 due to their loud music they have bumping in their shed which is only about 20 feet from our bedroom window. Some days I have more patience than others.

Part of me feels sorry for them, I have no idea what really goes on behind their walls. One day Joseph and I had come home and when we got out of the car we heard terrible screaming from a girl, she was saying "let me out of this house! let go of me!" and she ran out with their son half dressed and threw him in the truck and sped off. She came back later but that's when I realized that I can't judge them. I have no idea what they are going through and I shouldn't hold small stuff against them. But it is hard to see that little boy not being watched, for them not to take 10 mins and walk beside him as he rides is powerwheel. So I get stuck between my short fused anger and feeling bad for them. Although my anger usually outweighs the other I still wish there was something that I could do.

I'm sorry this was filled with negativity. I just have gotten so frustrated and I don't know what to *do* not that there i really anything that I can. I needed a little bit of therapy and this was my cheapest route :)